Ottawa Hospital declares ‘Code Orange’ after transformer fire at General Campus

Canuck October 27, 2023

The Ottawa Hospital declared a ‘Code Orange’ and asked the public to avoid the General Campus Friday night, after a fire in a hydro transformer impacted operations at Ottawa’s largest hospital.

In a statement, the hospital said that while the fire has been contained, it is “unable to resume normal operations at this time as well as patient demands from the Emergency Department.”

The public was asked not to go to the General Campus for treatment and visit other Emergency Departments in Ottawa at the Ottawa Hospital Civic Campus, the Montfort Hospital and the Queensway-Carleton Hospital.

Emergency crews responded to a fire in the hydro vault on the third floor of the Smyth Road hospital at 3:45 p.m. Friday. Ottawa fire said there were no patients on the floor.

“Firefighters are strategically ventilating the smoke & extinguishing the flames at this time,” Ottawa fire said.

A ‘Code Red’ was initially declared at the hospital Friday afternoon and some patients were relocated to other areas of the hospital. Ottawa fire said on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, that approximately 100 patients have been relocated at the hospital, including patients from the 4th floor West Wing to 4th floors East Wing.

The fire was contained just after 6 p.m.

“Some patients have been relocated throughout the hospital, and teams are working to ensure the safety of everyone in the hospital,” the Ottawa Hospital said.

There are no injuries due to the fire.

We are currently on scene at the General Hospital for a transformer fire in a hydro vault on the 3rd floor. The call came in at approx 15:47 & it has been comfirmed there are no patients on the fire floor & no evacuation will be required. Firefighters are strategically… pic.twitter.com/RejkzxQWGj

— Ottawa Fire Services (@OttFire) October 27, 2023